A Crooked And Perverse Generation

What you're seeing today is business as usual. 

A lot of people suck...they've always sucked and they'll continue sucking.  You look on the past with nostalgia, but stuff like this has always happened- scandal, crime, war...yadda, yadda, yadda. 

The reason it seems so much worse is that we're constantly bombarded with images of it from the media.  Back in the day these things were kept under wraps or not reported as often or as constantly.  Something has to fill those 24 hour news cycles and people love watching other people fall from grace.

Don't get too excited for the Rapture just yet.  Every generation of Christians expect it.  Ain't one of'em been right yet.

~Zoo

You are contradicting yourself.

Your society is either becoming more free and hence more people are capable of getting their way, or your society is becoming less free and hence fewer people will get what they want.

American society has become more free with every decade. You never were the land of the brave and the free in the romantic sense. But you might become it.

What Washington fought for is not the same as what he achieved. For a hundred years the "land of the free" was one of the even then few remaining countries that practiced slavery. And for even longer than that the "land of the brave" fought wars against the substantially less-well armed Indians who were also of smaller number than the white enemy.

The "land of the brave" materialised first in World War 1, and the "land of the free" materialised first in World War 2

Freedom and bravery is something to aspire to, not something to be proud of.

And traditionally freedom is not lost bit by bit or step by step but all at once in a single movement supported by a majority of people.

I have to agree with Zoo, this is business as usual, it's just that todays technology allows for the Media to broadcast the stories in a wide range of communication forms such as 24 hour TV news channels, news websites, emails, portable computers such as laptops, cellphones and ipods and even social websites such as twitter, facebook, myspace and blogging sites where regular people pass the stories forwards and in many cases tweak it to their point of view.

Oddly enough we get much more details today than we did before but now we have to work twice as hard to sift thru all of it to find the real facts and make an educational opinion on the stories. Most people just take the first thing they hear and run with it cause they too lazy to verify and get mad when you contradict them.

We are a resilient nation, we may be down right now but we are not out and  believe we will bounce back. Maybe all this information may actually help clean up some of the messes we have created thru out the years.

Another example of religious zeal clouding judgment.

no, not really.  I keep refuting this type of thing. You're being fed a lie as far as it's always been like this.  All you have to do is look in your own neighborhood.  Forget the news.  Once we were able to sleep in peace with our doors unlocked.  Try doing that today and see if you can get a decent night's sleep. 

Technology brings both good and evil like everything else.  Some use it for good; some for evil.  Technology can be very helpful in helping the evil ones to accomplish their evil deeds quickly and at a larger scale. 

In today's paper...and I'll quote from a woman who just turned 101...

"I think we respected family more than people do today.  People were friendly.  You knew your neighbors.  We never thought of putting up fences around our home.  We were one big family." 

Today many don't even know their neighbors.  Respect was common and decent; a way of life.  Today it's unheard of.  Kid's don't respect authority whether it be parents, teachers, police etc.  There is no respect anymore. 

In a very very loose way I happen to agree with you because I know the bible gives out certain signs to watch out for first.... but....and I've heard this before ad nausem and take it as scoffing...do you not know by saying this you are proving the scriptures to be right?  "there will be scoffers in the last day who say "where is his coming?" 

We are supposed to expect it; every generation of christians have been told to look for the return of Christ and we have for the last 2,000 years.  But many have overlooked the "signs" of the times that He gave us (Matt 24-Revelation 6).  The greatest sign is Israel coming into their own land ( the fact that the Jews just being here period is the greatest testimony of all).  A rapture will not take place until then.  After that will be the coming of the A.C.  Hasn't happened yet. 

Have you heard the latest news on this?  Their are more Jews now living in Israel than ever in the history of Israel.  There are for the first time more Jews in Israel than the United States.  And...many Jews in the U.S. taking a good look at our country are going back to their homeland.  Just as predicted would happen 2500 years ago despite all the nay sayers over the years who never believed that the Jews would have their own homeland. 

The next thing is the world going global.  It's not just a coincidence that everything is about globalism today.   Kingdom of the Anti-Christ is all about globalism..a one world order..one world government.  It's been like that since the Tower of Babal in Genesis 11.  We are heading that way again.   America has to be brought down for this to become a reality.  We've been way above for too long and we have to be brought low first to be on a level playing ground with the rest of the world AFTER helping Israel come into their own country. 

I don't think it's a coincidence we are talking about a world epidemic right now even knowing that there has been past epidemics but not like this one.   I believe that is just another sign in the whole order of things. 

While I believe the rapture is close and we should be expectant, I don't think it's imminent because there are still some other signs that haven't happened yet. 

Not really.  When someone gets their way it means others don't.  So both come into play. 

For instance, I no longer am free to drive without my seatbelt.  Someone(s) wanted that law enacted and it was put into effect.  I lost my freedom to choose but someone else got their name on a bill.  With more and more laws there are less and less freedoms. 

The latest news about that creep who kidnapped the young girl is another example of someone getting his way at the expense of another.  Where was her freedom in that situation?  He got his way in having an 11 year old sex slave.  How free was she? 

How about that Govenor in N. Carolina who wanted to fulfill his sexual desire by committing adultery on his wife and thereby destroying his family that included four sons?  He wanted his way, and took it at the expense of his family. 

Last night on Dateline they did the whole hour on Steve McNair the football player who was found murdered in the company of his adulterous girlfriend while his wife was home with their two sons. 

He was free to commit adultery (many times) on his wife.  She certainly didn't have her way in this situation nor did her boys.  She doesn't have her husband anymore and they don't have a father.  All because someone decided to take their daddy's life.  That certainly isn't being other minded now is it (which is what this blog is about)?  His freedom in getting his way cost something.  Not only did it cost him his life, but it forever changed the lives of his family because he was so self centered he didn't think about them and how this would effect them. 

So while we are free in one aspect; to do evil and eventually pay the consequences, most often it means enslaving another in one way or another along the way. 

and another example of a one liner with nothing to back it up with. 

now here's something Zoo I can agree with you whole heartedly on.  People feed off other's misery and discomfort.  Maybe because in some sense it makes them feel better about themselves thinking I'm not as bad as they are. 

Hello KFC,

We've finally arrived in Florida, but no where near settled yet! Today, I'm using my son's computer.

zoo posts

charlescs posts:

Me too. It's Modernism relativistic morals and ethics that are holding sway.

KFC WROTES:

ZOO POSTS:

Good point, Zoo. 

For sure.

Ever since the 60's, while the people sleep, their unalienable rights of life and  liberty of speech and association are under attack.

KFC,

With all due respect here if anyone is being fed anything it's you; you're the one going to church listening to someone else preach Gods word to you. I lived that life where one could go to slepp with the doors and windows open, that does not negate the fact that people still did bad things back then almost as much as now. We may have an increase in crime and bad behavious these days but that can relate to the changes in our society both technological and in size. Sleeping with open doors is something we still do in Puerto Rico even though crime is up over there. I don't spend the whole night worrying about my car being stolen or someone breaking into my apt.

I do admit I think our society has some serious problems, but I don't think this is the end of the human race in a biblical manner. As Zoo said every generation believed and believes the end is on their watch. If anything The Maya's predicted the world would end in 2012, before this it was suppose to end in the year 2000 between the 666 being 999 upside down and the y2k glitch. If there is one thing humans have shown thru out the centuries is that we are resilient. 2 World Wars, several smaller but almsot as bad wars, an atomic bomb and even terrorist attacks and yet the world still spins and people still drink Dunkin Donuts and eat Pizza Hut.

Without one the other can not exist. By the same token Technology can be very helpful in helping good ones to accomplish their good deeds quickly and at a large scale. Just take your article for example.

In this I agree. We have forgotten what being neighborly is. Still, this only means we have forgotten, not changed or disregarded it entirely.

I would not go as far as saying there is no respect anymore. I would say there is respect but just not as common. I respect your beliefs and your opinions just as much as I would think you respect mine. If we are to have absolute beliefs such as no respect "anymore" then I have to question why bother making this point? If you didn't believe there was hope and that things like respect are completely gone  you would not be making articles like this, going to church and praying for others or even bring the word of God to anyone.

I still believe there is hope for a better tomorrow but I accept that we are humans and that it is in our nature to go thru cycles of good and bad where more often than not the good remains and the bad goes away. Considering how far our lending hand can reach these days (across the world) compared to back in the days, I'd say we are much better people now than before.

Lets not also forget that our society today is very different from what it was even a few decades ago when there were less foreign people living here and our culture was supreme. These days our culture has to share space in this land with the multiple cultures from around the world and not all those cultures get along, as sad as it may sound.

Agreed, some people should just stick to reading and not commenting.

so how do you like it so far?  Did you know they had frost in Maine and NH already?  Winter's on the way already. 

no, no, no Charles.  You can't just believe every Tom, Dick and Harry who spouts off a date.  That's not fair.  No reputatable bible believer EVER sets dates.  The 2000 year date was NEVER reputable for instance.  Just because someone spouted off a date...it means nothing. 

Those false teachers are just confusing things.  Who do you think is behind that?  The bible is quite clear with clear signs to watch out for.  Israel coming into their own land.  The temple being rebuilt in Israel (not done yet).  Wars, quakes, famines, diseases and disasters coming with more frequency.  Parents being against thier own children and children their own parents.  Love growing cold.  Another sign is the abundance of false teachers and a falling away from the faith of God.  Another biggie is the one world order that will set the stage for a man of power to take over the whole world..  For the first time in our history we are as close as ever for this to take place.  The world wide web is going to be very instrumental in all this. 

Never before could we say you can't buy or sell without a number like we are getting very close to saying today. 

Oh I have hope but it's not in man.   My hope is in God and what he's going to bring to man.  I saw a bumper sticker the other day that resonated with me.  It said "NO Jesus; NO Peace."  That pretty much sums it up. 

I wouldn't go so far as to say there is NO respect anymore either...just using hyperbole to get the point across.  I've seen many times on the news these young kids speaking very disrespectfully to the cops who came to question their actions (forget about teachers).  I'm thinking...no way would we have dared to speak like that when we were young.  No way.  If the cop didn't take us in or report us to our parents, our parents would have applied the stars and stripes to our behinds if they got wind of it. 

And there was a time when nobody dared... I mean no one dared to desecrate a church.  Churches never locked their doors.  The fear of God was so strong that to rob a church meant lightening could fall from heaven on you.  Did you hear the latest about the woman pastor who was killed recently in her church in a very despicable manner?   

like I said there's always good and bad but as a society, as a whole, I don't know how you get that.  Just look at our corrupt leaders in all areas of leadership.  Are they worse or better than they used to be?  Sports?  Government?  Religion?  That's one way of looking at it.  How about entertainment?  Better now than say the 1940's?   1950's?   

True, but that's not what I'm seeing for the most part.  Take yesterday in GA for example.  8 people in one house dead.  Kids killing their parents, parents killing their kids, etc.  We NEVER saw this type of thing in the 230+ years we've been a country like we have in the last 10 years. 

I think this is why people watch those court shows.

Of course not. There was no 24-hour coverage of such things back then.

Now we know about these things. That's BETTER. We are better now than we ever were.

Ok, how's this? You're a gullible, superstitious moron.

Then why do you use it?

Did you hear of pencillin?  Did you hear that for every decade in the 20th centerary life spans went up in pretty much all of the world?

Did you hear about Thomas Becket?

Did you hear about Thomas Cronwell using Durham (UK) chatherdral as prison?

Did you hear about the Churches getting looting in pretty much every war in Europe?

Did you hear about the burning of the Sinagoges across the world and the centeries?

Did you hear that three-four hundred years ago every  major, and pretty much all minor ones, would be what we now describe as dictatorships with no regard for human rights, or in a total of cases the right to as  fair trial?

I have not been ciompenting recently, more because of time concerns then anything else. I appreciate your article, and while I can agree with the general thrust of argument you claim some things that are simlpy not true.

1. Desecration of Churches: I can see your worldview coming into play here, but there have been plenty of desecration of churches, just not White Christian churches in the suburbs. Think of the 60's and racial desecration of churches in the south. Think of all the discrimination that Muslim's in this country have had to endure just to try and get Mosques up and running. The list here is really endless.

2. Idealism of the 40's/50's. This is really something that society in general is starting to adopt, which is kinda discusting if you ask me. People seem to think this was a great time... there was no crime, everyone went to church, and you could sleep with your doors open. All true, if you were white, could afford to live in the new suburbs, and were protestant. I once read a statistic that talked about the murder rate compared to coverage of murders on TV. The fact is that the murder rate has dropped spectacularly in the last 20/30 years or so, but coverage of the murders that do happen has risen by around 300%. You can still sleep with your windows open, most likely nothing will happen to you. You have just been told by the media that you need an alarm system and a rotwieler or your kids are not safe.

3. Church attendance - This is one that gets me as well. As a regualar attender at a mainline protestant church I can tell you that faith is alive and well in America. The differnece is that now, the people who want to be there are there. You are not cuturally forced to go to church. This is a huge positive on many levels. Most kids do not grow up resenting the church as something they were forced to do. This means less outright hated of the church when they get older. Secondly, the people who are involved are truly there because they feel called to be there. I would rather have a spritually alive 200 person congregation then a 400 person one where people only come out of obligation and then build up that resentment.

BTW, the law that makes you wear a seatbelt took away your freedom how?? Your freedom to be impaled on your steering column? As I see that law retains my freedom to not have to pay for other people's stupid decision when they end up in the ER with no health insurance.

Really?

What "discrimination" have Muslims in the US ("this country") had to endure to try and get mosques up and running?

Leauki, just google Hamtramck and Mosque and you will get the story that I was refering to. I guess living in the Detroit area I see it more because of the large Muslim population here.

I see that case was about noise, not Islam or Muslims.

Is that it? When you said "discrimination" you meant that sometimes special laws for Muslims are suspended and they have the same rights and duties as everybody else again?

Leaders of the Al-Islah Islamic Center asked the council for permission to broadcast calls to prayer — a centuries-old tradition in Islam. A prayer is sung five times a day to invite Muslims to pray. They’re often broadcast by loud speaker in predominantly Muslim countries, but are seldom broadcast in the United States.

(Note that there is no centuries-old tradition in Islam to call for prayers using loudspeakers.)

The council could vote down the amendment — which seems unlikely — because the amendment has passed unanimously several times. If the council votes to approve the amendment, it still doesn’t go into effect. Instead, the amendment would be put on hold until it can be put on a ballot for city voters to consider.

So there is unanimous support for special rights for Muslims. And you call that discrimination? It is, but it's positive discrimination.

Masud Kahn, the associate imam of the mosque, said the mosque will begin the calls to prayer Friday, as planned, no matter what happens with the petition and the council. Kahn and council President Karen Majewski say the mosque didn’t need the city’s permission to broadcast the calls to prayer in the first place.

Because the mosque is a religious institution and because it is broadcasting from its own property, the city has no control over the calls to prayer beyond regulations contained in the noise ordinance.

So the imam had announced that he woulde defy the law and noise ordinance regulations.

http://littlegreenfootballs.com/article/11149_Hamtramck_Mosque_Will_Defy_Community

"jdkeepsmiling",

I am someone who does not even dare make public my religion in many cities out of justified fear. And now I am learning that for other religions it is already considered "discrimation" when they don't get special rights and there is a controversy over their announcement to break the law? That's ridiculous.

You need to learn what discrimination really is and why it is evil. Your example is NOT discrimination, not in the negative sense anyway.

Applying the same law to everyone is not discrimation. Changing the law for some is.

However, making enforcing noise regulations a matter of religion can likely lead to some ugly riots.

I'll tell you what.

He who wants to buy ham in a supermarket is not an anti-Semite (even though Jews, for religious reasons, would rather have supermarkets that don't sell ham).

And he who wants mosques to follow the same noise regulations as everybody else is not discriminating against Muslims (even though Muslims, for religious reasons, would rather have the imam use loudspeakers and wake up the entire city at five in the morning).

Superstitious, outdated bullshit. Dogma is hilarious.

That's really pathetic.

There is nothing superstitious about calling believers to prayer. It's just loud.

move to argentina which is posed to become the 2nd nation in this hemisphere to reverse its laws prohibiting possession of  small amounts of what are in this country designated as illegal drugs for personal use by its adult citizens (mexico being the first to do so).   according to an op-ed article published in the la times this very day (9/2/09):

Argentina's Supreme Court last week struck down a law that punished adults with up to two years in jail for marijuana possession, saying personal use is a private affair and that prison time is, therefore, unconstitutional in such cases. Adults are "responsible for making decisions freely about their desired lifestyle without state interference," the ruling said. "Private conduct is allowed unless it constitutes a real danger or causes damage to property or the rights of others." In response, the administration is preparing a law to decriminalize possession of small quantities of drugs while continuing to pursue producers and traffickers.

somehow i don't see you supporting shackles of this sort being undone (link by link is, btw, inappropriate imagery; chains, not shackles, have links).  based on their court's ruling, argentina has taken a giant step on its way to becoming a land of truly brave free people who do more than proclaim themselves so.